THE RIVALRY CONTINUES

Not 2 minutes after the Capitol One Bowl was over my phone started blowing up as seemingly every Wolverine fan I know had something to say. (I find it funny that only ONE of those calls came from an actual student or alumni and she goes to UM Dearborn, AKA Close But No Cigar) I had been saying for weeks how Heisman winner Tim Tebow would run all over Michigan and how after a State win and a Michigan loss they’d finish with the same record since who knows when. Ok, I was wrong. Who knew?

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The Michigan football program may be in trouble next year but it depends on a few players. Ryan Mallet may transfer, Mario Manningham may go pro, and after his bowl game performance Adrian Arrington is looking like more than just a possession receiver and he too may go pro. This future uncertainty didn’t stop my Wolverine friend from boasting away: “We won, you guys lost, we’re still better and you’re a loser school.” I was taken aback that a Michigan fan had the nerve to gloat about a Capitol Bowl win after a 9-4 season. So I, as any person would do, tried to find logic in her statements. “So us losing in football makes us a loser school?” I asked. She said “Yup”. So when I said, by her definition, that Michigan losing in basketball makes them a loser too, right? She quickly pointed out how MSU fans always bring up hoops when Michigan fans can only talk football. But that’s because the average Michigan fan doesn’t care about anything else but football, but an average Spartan fan cares about football, basketball, AND it’s national champion hockey team. She was flustered and I was amused.

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This rivalry irritates me to no end. It even follows me home. Now I’ve admitted to being a wolverine fan as a child, but as I grew out of it my mom didn’t. So while I’m at home cheering mightily for Florida I have to listen to my mother rooting for Chad Henne and the Bad Guys. I just can’t win. I can’t talk sports with a Michigan fan without getting upset at their lack of sports common sense.

So now that football season is finally over I can sit back and watch as the MSU hoops team rolls through the Big 10, possibly going undefeated, and making a strong run in the NCAA’s while UM doesn’t even make the NIT….again. I’ll call my UM friends and all they’ll talk about is football. Man this rivalry irritates me…as every good rivalry should.